The buoyant sales reflect a question of practicality. Unlike their colleagues in other countries, all Italian distributors attend Venice, so sales agents don’t have to wait until the Toronto Film Festival, which starts on Thursday, to see if other distributors will improve on offers already on the table.

“Post Mortem,” which preemed on Sunday, is a Venice competition favorite among Italo and international scribes.

Pic sets a doomed love story between a morgue worker and a dancer against the backdrop of Chile’s 1973 military coup, lead by Augusto Pinochet, which toppled President Salvador Allende.

“Post Mortem” is Larrain’s follow-up to “Tony Manero,” about a man obsessed with John Travolta’s character in “Saturday Night Fever” — that pic sold to 20 territories.